DECEMBER 1998 ----------------------------In this issue------------------------------------------ Techie's Corner: Rain! The Play's the Thing: Commedia dell'arte Enter Laughing: A New Showbiz Joke, "You know you work in Community Theatre if..." and heldover from last month: T'was the Night Before Opening Rubin's Corner: Parade Voices in Contemporary Theatre, From the Mailbag: Shakespeare in Love CyberTheatre Monthly: New York Entertainment Town 1998, National Alliance of Musical Theatres, Actors' Equity Association, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TECHIE'S CORNER Hello! Welcome to the Techie’s Corner. As I said last month, this column will cover as wide a variety of topics as possible in no particular order. If any of you readers wish to suggest a topic, I will be happy to give it a try. Bear in mind that I am notoriously weak in the areas of sound design and reinforcement. This month’s topic is RAIN. Rain on stage, real water, wet, sloppy, leaky, runny water! From a small drizzle outside a window to a real downpour. How do you get the water on the stage and more important, how do you get rid of it. When you make rain on stage there are 6 major areas of consideration. Supply, storage, delivery, recovery, control, and water quality. As you will see from reading, several of these areas overlap or become the same in different methods of creating rain on stage. First we will look at these 6 main areas and try to define and explain them, then I will follow up with a few examples of how you might create rain for a few specific situations. The scope of the column is meant to cover effects produced on live stages for a "theatre" audience, not effects for theme parks or large casinos with millions of dollars to spend. Supply: supply is just that, where do you get the water from? What is the most immediate source to the stage? Is it a sink back stage or down the hall? A storage tank like a 55 gallon barrel? If your supply is from city water in some form or another, you have the advantage of a constant pressure source. It is also cheap and easy. On the down side, if there is a leak, there is an unlimited supply of water to feed the flood. A storage tank has to be refilled, treated as necessary, and requires a pump or gravity to get the water to the rain system. On the other hand, any leak is limited by the size of the tank. Delivery: Delivery is how the water gets from the supply to the stage and how is it distributed or spread out, sprayed over the performing area or dripped behind a window. Delivery needs a force to move the water, a "pipeline" get it to where you want and a "rain head" to release the water. Generally if an effect is to last for more than a few moments a pump or municipal pressure is necessary to provide the force. However, if you only have a single window, say two or three feet wide, a 55 gal. barrel with at least eight to ten feet of height above the window, will keep a slow, steady rain going for five to ten minutes, depending on the size and number of holes in your "rain pipe". If the rain only needs to be outside a door as someone enters or exits, something as simple as a Hudson sprayer above the door will work. For a full stage effect a tank won’t and city water will rarely, provide the volume of water necessary. This leaves us with a recirculating system and a pump for most sustained rain effects. How big does the pump need to be? A very quick estimate can be made by figuring the total area of opening you will have in your pipes and multiplying by the height of your rain pipe or sprinkler heads above the stage. This will give you the approximate volume of water you need per second. If you figured in inches, multiply by 1728 to get the cubic feet of water. Now multiply the cubic feet of water you need by 7.481 to get the gallons. Now multiply by 3600 to get the gallons per hour (GPH) needed. The reason for finding the GPM is that most pumps are rated by gallons per hour at a specific "head". "Head", sometimes called "Static Head", is the term for the number of feet the pump must lift the water to the discharge point. For example, if your pump has to lift the water 20’ to pass over an obstruction, but the pipe/hose comes back down to 10’ at your actual rain pipe, your "head" will be only 10’. The reason for this is due to the siphoning action as the pipe hose comes back down over the obstruction. Although this effect is theoretically the same at any height, obviously there is a point where gravity and internal friction in the plumbing system put a maximum on the height you can pump the water over. The pump simply cannot get the water up to the top of the hill to start the siphoning effect. Now that you know the GPH that you need, you can go shopping for the pump(s) that will provide it. A point of importance here, the pump outlet, 1", 1 1/2",2", 2 1/2" etc. actually determines the final GPH. Your system must maintain that diameter of piping, on the average, to achieve that rating. For example, if your pump outlet is 2" diameter, that is 3.14 sq. inches in area. If you have a branch or "Y" in your system, each branch must have at least 1.414" diameter, or about 1.5", to maintain the maximum potential GPH flow. If you need more information for sophisticated systems such as water effects at theme parks, flowing rivers and waterfalls etc., that is beyond the scope of today’s column. Control: How do you make the water spray or fall where you want, and once it hits the stage, how do you make it go to your drain or catch tank? How do you keep the water from soaking the stage (or platform) floor and warping or ruining it? How you direct the spray depends on what kind of spray head or water pipe you use. The three general types of spray devices are: shower head types, including fire sprinkler system heads; rain pipes, basically pipe or hose with holes at regular intervals; modified rain pipes with some additional method of directing the water. For examples of modified rain pipes, see illustrations 1 and 2. Fire system sprinkler heads are designed to spread the water very evenly over an area. They tend to be best for very large spaces, outdoor use and film or video applications. Spray/shower heads can be used pointed either up or down. Pointed up gives a softer, more realistic looking rain, but of course you have to have height above the piping to clear lights, teasers or other scenery. Pointed down will give you a fairly controllable, usually round or oval spray pattern. The round pattern is great in the middle of an area to be rained on but if you have to cut the rain to a sharp, straight line like a shutter cut with lights, it won’t work. Straight lines and tight control generally have to be achieved by rain pipes or modified rain pipes. Rain pipes, like shower heads can be pointed up or down. Again, pointed up gives a better look but sacrifices a bit of control. Pointed down gives better control, but has a tendency to look too regular.....like a pipe with holes drilled in it. Modified rain pipes offer the most precision control but because the control is so tight, it often doesn’t look "real". Which is best? There is no best, only what works for you in a particular situation. It is simply a matter of what you and the director want the look to be and what constraints the set, stage, budget, time, crew etc. place on your realization of the effect. The second aspect of control is how to channel or direct the water once it hits the stage. For something as simple as rain falling outside a window, a small trough to catch the water, tilted to a catch basin like a 5 gallon pail with a small recirculating pump in it is all you need. Rain falling outside the door or over a large portion of the stage is a different matter. The floor, whether a platform lid or the actual stage floor, must be covered with a waterproof cover, linoleum, dance flooring, sheet metal et al. Something like gloss painted masonite won’t do unless you have only one dress rehearsal and 2 or 3 performances. Even then you run a major risk of ruining the floor underneath. All seams and joints must be sealed with caulk or vinyl tape or something similar. Clear silicone caulk is a very good sealant, but you cannot paint it. Silicone caulk also comes in a few basic colors. Acrylic painter’s caulk sounds good but will not last more than a few performances. In addition it does not adhere as well as silicone to a variety of different materials. Basically you need a surface that is completely water tight everywhere except where you want it to drain. The floor must be raked toward your drains and the edges must be either raised like a curb or grated for additional drainage. How much rake? For a light rain two or three degrees will do. For a very heavy rain five to eight might be needed. If there is dancing on the floor, more than eight degrees will pose a slip hazard, five degrees is better. To state the obvious, the size of your drain(s) must equal or exceed the capacity of your pumps or the water will quickly over run your catch basin. Recovery: Recovery is the single, largest item to consider when doing any kind of water effect whether rain or a kitchen sink or a waterfall. A full stage rain effect uses a LOT of water! For example, a recent effect for "Singing In The Rain" on a very small stage, 16’ x 24’, used over 1,000 gallons for the title song number! That amount of water is a major reason why large rain effects on live stage are almost always of the recirculating type. What do you do with all that water after it hits the stage and you get it to your drain? The simplest method is for your drain system to actually be your holding tank for a recirculating system. Other possibilities include draining the water to a building drain or a sump pump in the building. If your catch basin cannot be the reservoir for your water, you might need to have a secondary pump system to pump the water back to your main holding tank and the primary pumps. The main thing with your recovery system is that it must be able to contain the entire, worst case scenario, volume of water that your delivery system can provide for any given length of time. Storage: Where and how do you store the water before the storm, and if you use a two part recirculating system where and how do you store the run-off in order to pump it back to the main tank? If you have a single stage recirculating system, how large does the tank have to be to fill the delivery system and start the rain before the tank runs dry and has no more water to pump into the effect. As you can tell, storage is closely tied to, indeed is a part of, supply and recovery. Our concern here is the actual container(s) that you use and need. Containers can be 55 gal barrels, wooden troughs etc. They must be lined or made of a material that won't add color or dangerous chemicals (rust , etc.) to the water. Steel barrels must be lined with plastic or painted (with a non lead paint) to seal and prevent any chance of corrosion. Wood containers or troughs must be coated with several layers of marine spar varnish. The storage tank needs to be strong enough to handle several hundred pounds of water. Remember, water is heavy! Water weighs 8.322 pounds per gallon or 457 pounds for a full 55 gallon drum. In addition the tank(s) need to be protected from the dirt and dust that is present on every stage. Contamination can come from many sources, cigarette butts tossed away, sodas or coffee placed on top of the tank, etc. In other words the tank has to be covered and the recovery basin needs to be covered in-between shows. If you have a steel grate stage area, the entire surface must be covered with a drop cloth or similar. In addition, the piping to and from all containers, pumps and tanks should be PVC, plastic, galvanized pipe or some other type of piping suitable and approved for potable water. Why potable? See the next section on water quality. Water Quality: Quality refers to the temperature, the purity and the cleanliness of the water. Temperature is self explanatory. Purity and cleanliness may seem to be the same thing but they are not. Purity is the absence of harmful chemicals or organisms such as bacteria, mold etc. Cleanliness is the amount of particulate matter in the water, mud, dust, lint, etc. Because a performer doused with water from any source, will at some time ingest some of that water, it is inevitable. As a result you must treat the water as you would a drinking source. When you recycle water, heat it and store it for a period of time you are creating a perfect breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria. The simplest way to treat the water is to use a non-chlorine treatment for a swimming pool or spa, usually available at most home depots, builders square etc. Why a non-chlorine? Chlorine is a bleach, think about that on a costume. Also think about the chlorine smell you have experienced from an indoor pool or spa and expand that to a theatre from a partially atomized source of chlorinated water. While the treatment may not make it a particularly tasty source of water, it will be safe and pure. Just because the water is sanitary doesn’t mean it is clean. If your supply is directly from a city main, then you know it is both clean and pure. As mentioned earlier, contamination to a storage tank can come from many sources. The water needs to be replaced on a regular basis and strained in the interim. The final area of conditioning is the temperature. Once again, if you are using an open system with city water, sanitation, purity etc. are taken care of, temperature is not. If you can hook up to a sink rather than a hose bib, then you can use the hot water in the system. If you can't hook up to a sink and you need the water to be warmed, then you might as well be using a closed system. To heat the water, you simply install a water heater element and a thermostat in the holding tank and heat the water to the desired degree. Why heat the water? If an actor gets drenched every show for 8 weeks in an air conditioned theatre you can imagine the result if the water was cold. On the other hand, too hot might have been very comfortable but the steam rising from the stage might have spoiled the illusion, that’s why you need a thermostat. A thermostat unit from a hot tub or spa is perfect as the settings are in a relatively cool range. Up to now I have be describing very general systems and requirements. Now I am going to describe the effects from a recent production of "Singing In The Rain" at a very small dinner theatre. It isn’t the largest rain effect I have done or the most complicated, It just happened to provide a very wide range of problems to solve. The stage was a 16’ wide x 30’ deep platform, 12" high. The stage is a motorized, rolling platform that moves forward and back to provide additional audience access during intermissions and a dance floor for special events. The floor under the stage is concrete slab. Storage back stage is very limited so whatever systems were used, they had to be in place the entire show. The ceiling of the building is only 10’ above the stage. The stage and the rain were only 18" from the front row on three sides of the stage during the title number. The final straw was that the delivery system had to be semi-permanently installed into the ceiling while the recovery system moved 30’forward and back several times during the show. The system I designed was a closed loop, recirculating system. I used a 55 gallon lined drum as my main storage/delivery tank. The tank had a1500 watt heater element and a hot tub thermostat to maintain the water temperature at the desired level. Two 1/2 horse pumps delivered the water to the stage through a 2" braided plastic hose rated at 200 PSI, to a modified rain pipe. The catch system was a trough across the front of the stage with two smaller 1/4 horse(read quiet) pumps to return the water to the main tank via a 2" flexible water hose mounted on a pulley system that would lift and fold the hose when the stage retracted and lay it out flat when the stage was in the forward position. My main delivery system around the perimeter of the stage, consisted of two PVC pipes one inside the other(illustration 1). The outside pipe was 4" schedule 40 PVC. There was a slit 1/4" wide along the entire length. The slit was at the bottom of the pipe and a 4" strip of screen wire was inserted into the slot. The screen wire was "frayed" three or four wires along the lower edge and snipped or "pinked" to a ragged edge. The inside 3/4" tube was drilled 1/8" on 3" centers, aimed straight up and connected to the supply line. The water sprayed up inside the outer tube and ran out the slit at the bottom. The slit controlled where the water fell and the screen wire broke up the "sheet" effect back into droplets. In the center of the stage I used the same basic method except I cut away ¾ of the outer pipe(illustration 2). This created a shallow curved trough, over the pipe with the spray holes drilled in it. The spray went up and the curved trough spread the water in all directions. But no water went above the pipe system. This was important as there were lighting instruments as close as 6" to the side and above the piping. The reason I didn't simply one small pipe with holes drilled in the bottom is that it would look more like a lawn sprinkler with a steady stream of water, not droplets, coming from each individual hole, it looks very regular and fake. If you have at least 20' above the stage you can do it that way as the steady stream starts breaking up into drops by then. If you noticed earlier, I used two pumps to deliver the water and two pumps to return it, why? Simple redundancy, if one pump failed, I would still have rain, maybe not as much but still rain. I also ran one delivery and one recovery pump on the same breaker. That way if a recovery pump failed a delivery pump would also shut down and maintain balance in the system. You may have noticed that the recovery pumps were half the size of the delivery pumps. Why didn’t the delivery pumps empty out the barrel faster than the recovery pumps could put the water back? The answer is GPM at a specific head. The delivery pumps had to lift the water about 15’ to clear HVAC ducts etc. in the ceiling before arriving at the rain pipes. The recovery pumps only had to lift the water 36" to return to the tank. The 1/4 horse pumps were rated at 2750 GPH at 3’ head and the delivery pumps were rated at 2800 GPH at 15’ head, almost equal. The way I controlled the water was to install a shallow rake on the stage under the area where the rain was to fall. I rose only 1" in 20' but it was enough to make the water run down stage. The stage was covered with Marley floor and all the seams were vinyl taped. Another method is to make a raised stage with a steel grate floor and a catch basin under it. In my case, the height restriction made any added elevation undesirable. As a result I had to attach the catch basin to the front edge of the stage. The catch basin was a 1' wide trough across the front of the stage. It was 6" deep at each end and 11" deep at the center. The covering for the catch basin was a steel grate similar to that used on fire escapes and catwalks. The rain along the front of the stage fell directly into the catch basin and so there was very little spatter on the audience only 18" away from a downpour. At the sides of the thrust stage there was a street curb 6" high and 18" wide. It channeled the water down stage to the catch basin. The rainfall on the sides was directed to fall just inside the curb so that it blocked the spatter on the patron to the sides This has been a rather basic over view of what needs to be considered when putting rain on stage. I hope I have covered your questions and given you enough information to start out on your own. Until next month, stay safe. --- Michael Powers is the Technical Director at The Meadow Brook Theatre, a LORT B theatre in Rochester, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. Prior to The Meadow Brook Theatre, Michael has worked at such theatres as Geva in Rochester, N.Y., The Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City, The Cherry County Playhouse in Traverse City Michigan, The Walnut St. Theatre in Philadelphia, The Pittsburgh Public Theatre in Pittsburgh and Wild Wood Park For the Performing Arts in Little Rock. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE PLAY'S THE THING Hello TRE readers! I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful holiday season. To all my friends and readers I have one holiday wish for you all -- to visit a theatre and be magically transported to some time or some place you have never been. Use this time of family gatherings to share your love of theatre with family and friends and treat them to a night at the theatre. This month I would like to share the early beginnings of some of the standard traditions still present in the world of entertainment. Slapstick comedy and stock characters have a long theatrical history going back to Commedia dell’arte. Characters like Arlecchino and Pantalone still appear in various forms on stage, film and television. I would also like to acknowledge two internet sites who have given TRE permission to use their photos with this article. Ras Berghout, of Dark Side Masks and Jennifer Stannard of Masks in Motion, have both put together terrific sites on commedia dell’arte masks and information about the characters. Please visit these sites to see more examples. Commedia dell’arte: The Invasion of Slapsticks and Stock Characters So you sit down in front of your television on any given night and tune in the situation comedy of choice. Suddenly the screen is filled with stock characters types, like the servant who is smarter than the master, or the flamboyant military type who is really not as courageous as he appears, as well as comic bits of business we associate with the likes of Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett. The characters and bits seen today have a rich theatrical history. These characters types and comic pratfalls and pranks have been passed down through the generations from as far back as ancient Rome, but were refined with great success around 1550 when commedia dell’arte troupes began to perform in the public squares of Renaissance Italy. Stock characters were developed, from the masters to servants, and were easily recognized by the Italian audiences. Pratfalls and pranks became trademarks of the comic artistry of these troupes of performers. So engrained in comic tradition are the commedia dell’arte troupes and conventions that they still survive today. Just as we can trace stock characters of today to their origins in commedia, the commedia dell’arte traditions can be traced back to ancient Rome. The Atellan farces began to appear after the first century B.C. when playwrights began to disappear from the scene. Imported from Atella, located near Naples, these farces, " . . .employed a set of stock characters: Maccus, a fool or stupid clown; Bucco, a glutton or braggart; Pappus, a foolish old man who was easily deceived; and Dossenus, a cunning swindler and glutton who was probably hunchbacked," (Brockett, pg 46). Dialogue was improvised. The plots were mostly situations of trickery, deceit, and foolish behavior. Brockett does state that while there are many similarities between Atellan farces and commedia, " . . . there is no positive evidence to prove any direct connection between them," (Brockett, pg 89). He states that another theory regarding the origins of commedia is that it is, " . . . entirely native to Renaissance Italy without any necessary antecedents," (Brockett, pg 89). Regardless of the true origin of commedia dell’arte, around 1550 a new sort of professional acting troupe was gaining popularity with audiences. So popular were these improvising, acrobatic actors that their craft spread throughout Spain, France, England and the rest of Europe. These were not the amateur actors who performed the erudita, or learned dramas. These were true professionals, trained physically for the rigors of such a physical style of comedy, and who understood the preciseness of comic timing. A writer of 1634 stated that, " . . . the actors engage in study and load their memories with a great mass of matter, such as stock sentiments, conceits, love speeches, complaints, ejaculations of despair and madness, which they keep ready for all occasions," (Macgowan and Melnitz, pg 37). In their book, The Golden Ages of Theatre, Macgowan and Melnitz state that commedia dell’arte: . . . got its name only when it was passing out of existence in the eighteenth century. The term dell’arte was a critical accolade. Those words signified that there was nothing of the amateur about the comedians and their comedy. Just as today the phrase "the profession" means people who know and practice the special art of acting, arte -- as the English critic Allardyce Nicoll points out -- meant the special art of playing these comedies. (36). Before the name commedia dell’arte became used to describe this type of comic work, there were earlier names for the art form. One name was commedia all’improviso, meaning that the plays were improvised. The other name, commedia a soggetto, implied that the actors, " . . . improvised their comedies upon a ‘subject,’ or plot," (Macgowan and Melnitz, pg 36). In commedia dell’arte, it was the actor who was the focus. Very little in the way of set design and props were necessary to perform one of the improvised scenarios. The actor would follow the outline of actions, which was posted backstage. Though the actions were written, the dialogue was improvised, in most cases. There are examples from some seventeenth century writers that not all performances were improvised. Macgowan and Melnitz note that, "There were written prologs that had little to do with the plot, and there were also set speeches -- delivered as soliloquies -- with which an actor closed a scene or made an exit. These often ended in rhymed couplets such as we find in Shakespeare . . ." (pg 37). One of the most important bits of action in a commedia was the lazzi. They often had nothing to do with the plot, but were physical bits of stage business strictly for laughs. For example, the lovers might be having some type of trouble and a servant, " . . . might pretend to catch a fly, or eat imaginary cherries from his hat and flip the pit in the hero’s face. A special way of tripping up an opponent was considered a lazzo," (Macgowan and Melnitz, pg 37). Lazzis became the pratfalls, slips on banana peels, and physical predicaments of later burlesque performers and silent film stars like Buster Keaton. Of the many troupes founded in the sixteenth century, the two most prominent were the Gelosi (The Jealous) and the Accesi (The Inspired). Other troupes were called, " . . . I Fedeli (The Faithful), I Desiosi (The Desirous), I Confidenti (The Confident) . . ." (Macgowan and Melnitz, pg 38). The Gelosi troupe was most popular, mainly due to the, " . . .popularity of its leader, Francesco Andreini (1548 - 1624) and his wife Isabella (1562 - 1604). The latter was a favorite with many of the literary figures of the day and was herself a poet," (Brockett, pg 90). The Gelosi traveled throughout Italy and France. The Accesi, led by Pier Maria Cecchini, Tristano Martinelli and Flaminio Scala, visited France on at least two occasions. Copies of contracts of the actors still exist today which, " . . . sometimes required periodic attendance at the confessional or prohibited swearing," (Macgowan and Melnitz, pg 38). The better known troupes, like the Gelosi and the Accesi, generally confined themselves to the larger cities, while the lesser known troupes traveled from town to town throughout Italy. The troupes carried with them the props and simple stages needed for performances. When the troupes had a chance to appear in a theatre, they employed the scenery, stage machines and special effects that had been written in books by Serlio, in his book on stage design, and Sabbattini, in his book on stagecraft. The audiences attending the theatrical performances were sometimes punished for their misbehavior. One cardinal had punishments that included, " . . . fines, stripes, or imprisonment for those who sat on the stage, stood in front of the actors, made unseemly noises, or threw ‘apples, nuts, or garbage at the comedians’," (Macgowan and Melnitz, pg 38). The acting troupes were generally made up of family members, both male and female. Unlike past theatre restrictions, and continuing restrictions among the English theatre set, females were permitted on stage. Each troupe had a special set of characters, and the, " . . . same set of stock characters appeared in all the plays performed by a single troupe, and the same actor always played the same role," as long as the actor was either young enough or old enough to play the part (Brockett, pg 89). The characters had originally, " . . . been created by one particular actor. Gradually other actors gave them different dialects, and changed them in small ways. But certain types were unchanging, indestructible," (Macgowan and Melnitz, pg 37). There were three categories of stock characters in commedia. The classifications were the lovers, the masters/old men/braggarts, and the servants. The lovers were called the innamorati. The male and female lovers, whose obstacle to being married was the basic plot, were not usually the center of interest. The lovers dressed in contemporary clothing, and generally were named after the actor playing the role. They did not wear masks as part of their costumes. The male lover was often gullible, while the female was most often the smarter of the two. The second group, the masters, were comprised of characters who appeared most frequently. Pantalone, the best known of the commedia masters, was either the father of or the husband of a young woman, usually the innamorata. He was a merchant, or a miser. His character figured predominantly into the plot. His costume was red and black. He wore a red or black mask that brandished a long hooked nose. Next is Dottore, a scholar, doctor, lawyer, or professor. Dottore was the friend of Pantalone. He was verbose, pompous, and spoke in broken Latin. His costume denoted his profession, but was almost always black, and padded for size. He wore a black half-mask, with bright red cheeks. Capitano, the bragging bully who constantly boasted of his military exploits, was nothing more than a coward and braggart. He was sometimes one of the suitors for the innamorata. Capitano was clumsy, and drunken. His costume was a military uniform, with bright colors and brass buttons. His mask was flesh-colored with a big red nose and a mustache. In contrast to Capitano was the character Scaramuccia. This character would later serve as the model for Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. He was a bit of a braggart, but was brave, took risks, and was a good swordsman. His costume was also a military uniform, with a red jacket, blue trousers, yellow belt and green shoes. Scaramuccia did not wear a mask, but wore heavy white powder makeup. The third groups, the servants, were also known as the zannis, clever or stupid, mischievous male servants. Most well known of the servant characters is Arlechinno, who is also called Harlequin in France. A shrewd trickster, Arlechinno was often the go-between for his master’s deeds. His costume was originally made up of patches which evolved into the familiar diamond shaped pattern of red, green and sometimes yellow. He wore a "domino" or half-mask. Arlechinno carried a slapstick, a prop that made a slapping noise that simulated hits and punches. The other well known character is Pulcinello, also known as Punch in England. He was a vengeful, violent, lazy character who was sometimes the suitor of innamorata. His costume was a white shirt, brown or green pants, and he had a hunchback and protruding stomach. His mask had a large hooked nose. Brighella was Capitano’s servant, an enlisted military man, who was a bit of a bully and would do anything for a price. His costume was a debased military uniform, white with green stripes. His mask had a large mustache. Pierrot, the romantic of the group, is a mute poet from whom the traditional look of the mime evolved. His white shirt, with black pom-pom buttons, and white shirt, still survive as a mime’s costume today. He wore no mask, but used white face makeup and often had a painted tear on his cheek. Scapino, Scapin in France, was a combination of Arlechinno and Brighella. He was a rascal and con artist, but had a good nature. His costume was white trousers, jacket and shirt, edged with green, and was often playing a lute or a guitar. His mask was the same as Arlechinno’s. The female servants included Soubrette and Ruffiana. Soubrette, also known as Columbine, was the maid to the innamorata. She was playful, cocky and outspoken. At times she might be involved in the attempt to get the lovers married. She was sometimes the lover of Pierrot, or sometimes the wife of Arlechinno. Her costume was fairly contemporary in style, with a large apron. She wore no mask. The other female was Ruffiana. She was a gossipy, talkative, judgmental woman who loved to play matchmaker. She is usually older, but thinks of herself as much younger. She also wore contemporary clothes denoting a servant and wore no mask. Though commedia dell’arte was very popular in Italy, it had little effect on the development of Italian theatre. Commedia’s biggest impact on theatre would be in France, Spain and England and Germany. Italian troupes were in great demand in France, at court and with the population. The courtyard theatres of Madrid was a domain of success. Troupes even appeared before Elizabeth I and James I of England. Kings and queens were not the only ones influenced by commedia. The great playwrights of the period used many of the stock characters in their plays. Shakespeare would use the characters again and again in such plays as All’s Well That Ends Well, in which he modeled Captain Parolles after Il Capitano. Macgowan and Melnitz stated that: The plot of Comedy of Errors is as typical of the commedia dell’arte as is the charming scene in The Taming of the Shrew between fair Bianca and Lucentio disguised as her music teacher. The characters and the stories of Italians inspired Moliere to create Tartuffe, The Miser, The Imaginary Invalid, George Dandin, and The Rogueries of Scapin. But it was not till almost a hundred years after Moliere that Italian playwrights, Goldini and Gozzi, began to draw upon the rich store of the commedia dell’arte. (39) And today the world of theatre, film and television still uses the same characters. The musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, is full of the characters of stupid masters and smart servants. In the silent films, many of the characters were basic commedia types. Television soap operas are rampant with stock characters like the young lovers, tricksters, and smart servants who seem to know all. Commedia dell’arte still fits the hand theatre and comedy like a glove. Just watch out, that glove could be filled with whipped cream or a mousetrap so that we all get a laugh when the hand is inserted. Works Cited Brockett, Oscar G. The Theatre: An Introduction. San Diego: Aztec Shops. 1997. (Supplemental class material). 89-91 MacGowan, Kenneth, and Melnitz, William. Golden Ages of Theatre. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 1959. 37-39 Internet Sites on Commedia dell’arte An Annotated Bibliography of Comedia dell'Arte, Music Hall, Panto and Other Divisions Photos, Film Clips, Scenarios. Focus on masks includes character profiles, masks and costumes, and mask workshops. A Brief History of the artform and some of its principal characters Commedia dell'arte troupe supported by the University of Georgia. Research and Practice of Modern Performance in this historical style. --- Caprice Woosley is currently pursuing her BFA in theater (directing and playwriting), after 25 years working in and around the theater. She is a produced playwright, actress, and amateur dramaturg who enjoys researching plays. She is a host in the Writing Forum where she co-hosts a Writing Discussion Group. She also hosted "Shakespeare Unplugged" and "Murder and Mayhem" in the Theatre Forum. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ENTER LAUGHING That's showbiz... Three recently deceased individuals are greeted by St. Peter at the gates of Heaven. Peter explains that they have yet to reach their final destination. He will ask them one question and their answer will determine their mode of transportation to eternal bliss. He asks the first, "In your best year, how much money did you make?" The first replies, "$80,000." St. Peter says, "Very good. You take that new train to your left." He asks the second, "In your best year, how much money did you make?" The second replies, "$3,000,000." Peter says, "Bravo. You take the personal jet to your right." He asks the third, " In your best year, how much money did you make?" The third replies, "$2,500." Peter exclaims, "Really? What would I have seen you in?" Sentences you've never heard spoken in a theatre... "Can we do that scene change again?" "Yes, yes, I TOTALLY understand what you're trying to get across...let me redraw the plans..." "We have way too many instruments in this theatre." "You know, I really really like working with actors." "No thanks, I don't drink." "My costumes are SOOOOO comfortable!" "My choice is a little too big, isn't it?" You know you work in Community Theatre if... ...your living room sofa spends more time on stage than you do. ...you have your own secret family recipe for stage blood. ...you've ever appeared on stage wearing your own clothes. ...you can find a prop in the prop room that hasn't seen the light of day in ten years, but you don't know where your own vacuum cleaner is. ...you've ever appeared in or worked on any show written by Van Zandt and Milmore. ...you have a Frequent Shopper Card at The Salvation Army. ...you start buying your work clothes at Goodwill so you can buy your costumes at the mall. ...you've ever cleaned a tuxedo with a magic marker. ...you've ever appeared on stage in an outfit held together with hot glue. ...you name your son Samuel and tell him that his middle name is in honor of the French side of the family. ...you've ever appeared in a show where tech week is devoted to getting the running time under four and a half hours. ...you've ever appeared on stage in an English drawing room murder mystery where half the cast spoke with southern accents. ...you think Neil Simon is a misunderstood genius. ...you've ever appeared in a show where the cast outnumbered the audience. ...you've ever gotten a part because you were the only one who showed up for auditions. ...the audience recognizes you the minute you walk on stage because they saw you taking out the trash before the show. ...you've ever menaced anyone with a gun held together with electrical tape. ...you've ever had to haul a sofa off stage between scenes wearing a dinner gown and high heels. ...you've ever had to haul a sofa off stage between scenes wearing a dinner gown and high heels -and you're a guy. ...you've ever played the father of someone your father's age. ...your kids know your lines better than you do. ...your kids DELIVER your lines better than you do. ...you get home from rehearsal and have to go back to the theater because you forgot your kids. ...you've ever appeared in a show where an actor leaned out through a window without opening it first. ...you've ever had to play a drunk scene opposite someone who was REALLY drunk. ...you've ever heard a director say, "Try not to bump into the furniture," and mean it. ... ...you've ever appeared on stage with people you're related to. ...you've ever heard the head of the set construction crew say, "Just paint it blackno one will ever see it." ...you've ever appeared in a show featuring a flushing toilet sound effect ...the set designer has ever told you not to walk on the left half ofthe stage because the floor's still wet -- five minutes before curtain. ...you've ever been told that the reason your director has no eyebrows is because he handled special effects for the last show. ...you've ever said, "Don't worry - we'll just hot glue it." T'was the Night... T'was the night before opening, and in Front-of-House, There wasn't one patron, not even a critical mouse. The actors, who were blocked on the set with such care, Wondered if the PLAYWRIGHT soon would be there. The techies were nestled all snug in the booth, Wondering, "Who could write such a play and be so long in the tooth?" The director in tweed, the SM all in black, Had just hunkered down to try to get the show back on track. When at the Stage Door, there arose such chatter, The SM flew from his headset to see what the #!%#! was the matter. Away down the aisle, Exit, Stage-Right, He upset the Props Table - oi, what a sight! The Leicho Down-Left, with a gel all in blue, Gave the scene a sad light, barn-doors all askew. When what to his bloodshot eyes should appear, But an over-used ten-speed, with eight working gears! And a dishevelled young rider, moving anything but quick, The SM knew in a flash, it must be that derelict - uh, PLAYWRIGHT! More noisy than chainsaws, her bike slowly came, While she whistled and shouted the odd cycle brand name. "Soon Norco or Peugot, CCM or Raleigh! Oh for a twelve-speed, or maybe a Harley! One measly commission, some royalties, just a few! Maybe then I could afford another gear or two!" As no-shows that before the first reviews mount, (the audience fearful to trust its own account) So into a pile fell the Backstage Crew, With a Costume Rack, a ten-speed, and that !#%#! PLAYWRIGHT, too! And then, after a five-count, the director could hear, A discourteous dialogue coming from the rear. As he reached for his Bromo and lithium comound, Out from the wings the PLAYWRIGHT did bound. She was dressed "early-Sally-Ann" from head to her foot, Covered in rough-drafts, through which she did root. A monologue stuck to her knee, at the back, And a two-hander out-scene, hanging like a sack. Her eyes, how they dilated! Her wrinkles, how scary! Her cheeks were like Moses' - her face, almost hairy! Her droll sort of mouth was drawn up in a snarl, And the tatoo on her chin was dedicated to "Carl." The stub of a pencil she held in her teeth, Shavings of lead fell about her, like a wreath. She had a sad face and a fragile kind of ego, That trembled when she wrote, like a quake in San Diego. She was moody and brooding - a right jolly old elf, And the director cringed when he saw her, in spite of himself. But a wink of her eye and the revisions in her head, Soon gave the cast to know they had nothing to dread. She spoke not a word, but went straight to her work, Re-writing the script - then she smiled at the jerk - uh, director, And laying her pencil aside of her prose, She gave "thumbs-up" and brought the drama to a close. Then she faded into the shadows as the cast took the light, And that show? Well it flew - to the director's delight! And not 'til she had left, cycling into the night, Could she hear them exclaim, "Thank God fer the PLAYWRIGHT!" c 1998 by Sandra Dempsey, Calgary, Alberta, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ RUBIN'S CORNER Parade Leo Frank was a newcomer to Atlanta. A man who had come to Atlanta to run a business and get married to a woman he did not love. The truth is, outsiders, have always been at risk in the South. It was inevitable that Leo, a Jewish Yankee, would come to ask the question that rings with horror in an early scene of Alfred Uhry’s new musical Parade even before the horror has begun: "How can I call this home?" My question is how did this get to Broadway or rather the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center. Harold Prince talked about Parade in an interview with André Bishop, the artistic director of the Vivian Beaumont. He talks about Parade as having a terrific story. It’s a musical about two people living a sterile dreary, Victorian marriage arranged by their families. She’s an ugly Southern Belle—accepting, grateful to be married to a hard-working, upstanding man. He’s persnickety, anal, humorless, didactic, but yes, upstanding and hard working. One day he is accused of murder he didn’t commit. Because he’s innocent, he doesn’t defend himself. He thinks he doesn’t need to. He’s affronted and, in defending himself, offensive. It gets worse. The web gets tighter. And then both people undergo changes-giant changes. They reinvent themselves and they fall in love. It all culminates with a conjugal visit to him in jail. This is a Lincoln Center and Livent Production. It was co-conceived by Mr. Prince, who directed the entire production. The book is by Alfred Uhry and the music and lyrics by first time Broadway author Jason Robert Brown. Patricia Birch has done the choreography and Howell Binkley did the lighting. If you mix all these people together and stir until a parade goes by you have one boring evening. Only the sets by Riccardo Hernandez are new and interesting. He should have a note in the program that says, "I am sorry about the tree, but the director made me put it in the show. The tree is the symbol of a hanging threat that turns an already tragic evening into an awful evening. Carolle Carmello and Brent Carver try very hard. In the end they are forced to go down with the ship while sing a number of boring musical numbers. The only good musical number is "A Rumblin and a Rollin". It is quickly forgotten because of a number that is so loud, I want to run from the theater called "This Is Not Over Yet’. The cast looks like it was organized by a labor union as they march from side to side under that darn tree. There are still more symbols for us to ponder like the Parade, which we get to see three times. The first and second time I understood the symbolism, but by the third time we got the message. We know the "South" has not changed since the Civil War, at least according to Mr. Prince and mr Uhry This was the production that Livent hoped would correct their recent problems. This would be the first production done by a funded company along side of a commercial theater company. I am sorry to say that this a painful evening of theater. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Voices in Contemporary Theatre From the Mailbag: Subject: Shakespeare in Love I was lucky to be at the premiere of "Shakespeare in Love" (screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard) tonight, along with First Lady Hillary Clinton, who said it was the first time she was seeing a movie in a theater in five years. She told the audience there was a chance she was going to leave early, but she stayed for the entire movie. I highly recommend this movie to all playwrights. I felt so much joy about being a playwright after seeing it. All the frustrations, moments of ecstasy, creative satisfaction, ego bruises are all there. At one point, someone asks theater manager Burbidge who the young, intense Shakespeare is. His reply? "He's nobody. He's the writer." The audience howled. There's a wonderful moment at the end when an audience sees the premiere of "Romeo and Juliet." I guarantee you'll get choked up, maybe cry. We have chosen the best profession of all!!!!! Aren't we lucky? See this movie and be reminded in an exhilerating way. Olga Humphrey Subject: Stage Directions Did anyone else see the delightful "Shouts and Murmurs" page in last week's New Yorker? It's nothing BUT stage directions all taken from O'Neill's actual stage directions from various of his plays. Gave me quite a laugh. Sandra de Helen Quote of the month: Sketch your ideal career in theater... "I would want to work in a company like Ariane Mnouchkine's or Pina Bausch's, which are forms of dance theater. I would like to do Shakespeare in the Park and a lot of classical work in the newer way of exposing those stories. It would be great to play Hedda Gabler. I want to do film, because there are things you can do on it that you can't do on live stage. I would like to work with Emma Thompson. I'd be happy to work with Robert De Niro, Simon Callow. But my heart lies in doing live theater." --Aysan Celik in the Boston Globe "It is only in oppression that an artist has dignity."" -Sam Shepard on Charlie Rose ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CyberTheatre Monthly New York Entertainment Town If you like Variety but get tired of the California view of the world that sometimes permeates their theatre coverage, You're gonna love this. National Alliance for Musical Theatre Okay, they don't update the newsletter as often as they might, but it's still a great site, if only for the set and costume registry. Actor's Equity This site, launched in August, uses the acronym "A C T O R S" for its navigation bars, dividing information into the categories About Equity, Casting call, Theatre news, Onstage/offstage, Resource center and Services. Unfortunately content doesn't quite live up to the gorgeous design: AEA discourages e-mail because you'll need to include personal information and "it's not secure", although they could have easily set up a secure server as does any merchant which takes credit card orders through e-mail driven forms Their "news" section consists of union announcements, and AEA members using the site to find specific information, like the number for a local audition hotline, report that the organization is not intuitive and it's faster to call. DID YOU KNOW? 1501 includes a directory of Theatre & Film Pros available for networking over ICQ. Remember Books Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg "Every so often you come across a book that inspires you. While reading it, you keep thinking of people you want to share it with, people you know would enjoy and benefit from it. Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, is such a book." Top of Form 1 "Basically, if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things. Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot. And don't think too much. Just enter the heat of words and sounds and colored sensations and keep your pen moving across the page." --Natalie Goldberg To suggest a theatre, dance, or music-related website for CyberTheatre Monthly, write to Theatre@1501broadway.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1998, Mersinger Theatrical Services